New Delhi, June 19 -- When Pakistan launched the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) in June 2023, officials heralded it as the catalyst for the country's economic revival-a "single-window" platform promising streamlined approvals and billions of dollars in Gulf investments. The echoes of earlier ambitious claims around the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $60 billion infrastructure initiative begun in 2015, were unmistakable. Yet two years into SIFC, Pakistan's economic dreams remain largely unrealised, undermined by structural flaws, persistent terrorism, and entrenched military dominance.

Both initiatives share a pattern of initial fanfare followed by eventual stagnation. CPEC was to transform Pakistan's economy t...